Shiny Object Syndrome. I’ve got it.

Welcome back to Focus on You. The podcast for people with something to say, and not quite sure how to say it. I’m Dachia. I am a soon to be work from home, full time dog mom.

It’s Monday morning as I prepare to batch about 6 episodes. I worked over the weekend and while I intended to work on this podcast, I really ended up going down a bunch of rabbit holes on political matters.

I do feel more knowledgeable about current events… but I gotta say I’m also just pretty much disgusted with the whole process and everybody involved.

So, I did not get anything done on my podcast.

I also took a second temporary job and training for that is next. Week on the other side of the state.

My current part time job, which I like and provides me with a lot of time to work on my personal interests, just doesn’t quite cover my financial needs. And I have a 24 month plan. I need some income for those 24 months.

I had been using, and I do still use, like right at this moment, the notes application on my Mac. However, I need to see things more visually. And the notes just lists everything according to what you updated last. This is not helpful for me.

The online tool is easy to see and move boards from one spot to another. So, I did a brain dump… then sort of organized the topics into categories, then shifted the categories around so I could see where they needed to be in the big picture according to my 24 month plan.

I had been writing longhand in spiral notebooks. And I had been using colored gel pens to change topics or make a particular topic stand out. And straight up, I do think that writing long hand does something in your mind… it opens up some creativity. So, I’m not just walking away from that.

But I do need to be able to move stuff around, and while I do have poster board and post it notes on my wall here at my home, I need to see it while on the clock too… when I’m not down rabbit holes.

So, I started using the online project management tool.

Also…I’ve been thinking about how I could make sure my business is accessible if something were to happen to me. So, I added my brother to my GoDaddy account and other accounts and I’m trying to write out detailed information about the project so that once it is going, he could get help to keep it going.

But it’s not going just yet. If something were to happen to me right now… I think everything would just expire and be bought up by Asian bot companies who want to throw up sites on aged domains.

As this project grows though, I’m hoping to have some clear notes and directions AND perhaps already have a VA or two, that he can just step in and it continues to run. We’re just not there, yet. And it might be 4 or 5 years before we are.

Until then, I am worth more alive than dead… so I got that going for me.

I now have 21 domains. And I think I have 16 websites. I do have plans for 2 of those domains, so I’l likely throw a site up in the next week or so, and poke around in it from time to time.

However, I am a sufferer of shiny object syndrome. Even knowing that and admitting it… I am still often caught up in some great idea that is just not feasible yet.

For example, I had been thinking that I want to have some merchandise with my site logo on it. Just some t’shirts and sweatshirts, and maybe a ball cap.

I envisioned myself wearing my own merchandise on my YouTube videos, just like one of my favorite you tubers Viva Frei, Montreal litigator turned YouTuber, he does these things called Vlawgs… and I’ve been watching him for about a year now. When I first started watching him, he would be filming from the roof of the house or from his car, anywhere he could just find a quiet spot away from his kids. And he was wearing whatever he normally wears… I guess.

And then he started offering merchandise with his slogan and an image of his dog… and having some fun… and I started thinking that when I started on youtube, I mean really started to spend some time and make some videos there, that I should wear my merchandise and offer it for sale.

Every little bit helps. I mean, the goal here, for me, is to become a full time stay at home, WORK from home, dog mom. So… I need to have multiple streams of revenue.

But I need to remember that when Viva started… he didn’t have those t’shirts. In fact, when he got started he was blogging about a few different topics. Cooking, the law… something else… but when I found him, he was talking about current events pertaining to the law. And he would explain what was going on.

He grew into a following and he grew into a point where he could offer merchandise… He didn’t start there. So, I… with my shiny object syndrome, need to remember that just starting is the key. I can’t dick around and line all this stuff up. I need to produce.

And I can’t judge my beginning by somebody else middle.

Viva has been doing this for a couple years now. Maybe a few… hang on, I’ll go see when he started.

Ok, it looks like he got started in youtube about 5 years ago doing fun videos and family stuff… and the law stuff… I can’t really tell… it’s over a year, but I couldn’t keep scrolling and you know why?

Because I suffer from shiny object syndrome and I just saw a dozen videos there that I would like to see!

So, I had to close the tab, but my point is, and yes, I do have one… that I will one day have merchandise. I’ll have the t-shirts and the ball caps and I’ll rock them in the videos… but not today.

Maybe not even this year. Trying to find a good quality supplier who does screen printing in smaller batches that I could afford?… yeah, that’s not a quick search and find an answer. That’s another rabbit hole.

My goal right now has to be fleshing out my sites. The 3 (maybe 4 depending on how you look at it) sites in my first phase. I want to get about 30 pieces of good content on each of those sites.

Now one of them, already has 30 posts, but many of them are the show notes to the podcast, so they don’t really count.

Even with those, though, it is a fleshed out site. Not to say it is done. I want to put some more on there.

Then there is the new site, and that still has about 7 posts. I want to create several pieces of content for that site myself, but I’m also sending invites to people I know in the field to see if they would like to submit some content. I’m definitely behind on that project. I had hoped and actually planned to have 30 posts done by the end of the month, and that’s pretty much here as I work on this episode.

However, I’m not dissuaded. I’m off to slower start than anticipated, but this is still a good plan and still far better than the plan of just working a job for somebody else till I die.

I’m 51. And when I was a kid, people my age would be in a career at one company and counting on retirement and a pension etc. And I just don’t think that is something that can or should be counted on anymore. Times have changed and we need to see what’s working and what’s not.

We also need to be realistic with how long we will live. I think when I was younger, I thought life was pretty much over at 50, certainly at 65 when people could retire and finally start to enjoy their lives. I did it kind of backwards. I never got into a career. I took odd jobs and traveled and learned skills and bartered my way through life for pretty much 30 years… since college. College the first time.
And so I did a lot of living and traveling in there. I just don’t have any retirement. I also just don’t feel like moving anymore. When I was younger, I would hit the road and go live and work somewhere for a couple years, then get something else arranged for another couple years.

I don’t want to live anywhere else than where I am. I love my life. I’ve got my furkids. I am just working a project that will allow me to spend my time at home with them.
So, what I was saying was that I thought life was over by the time I would get this age and I no longer think that. I could very realistically be only half way there. I could live another 40 or 50 years. I’m healthy and I haven’t had any big surgeries that do tend to either knock years off your life or at least knock life out of your years.

So, It’s well worth it for me to work this plan for 24 months.

That’s not to say that I don’t need to work anymore after 24 months. The plan is that I have replaced my necessary income by then and can work from home. With the dogs.

That’s the plan.

And I think this plan is achievable by most people. I’m not special in that regard. In fact, I would bet that most other people would have an easier time working the plan because they don’t have the shiny object syndrome that I have and don’t fall down every rabbit hole they come across

Those rabbit holes are the very reason I created the membership site. It is for people like me, who need to get something done, create an online presence, and need to find out how to do that… but waste hours days or months because we follow every path.

The membership site just gives you direct resources with no rabbit holes.

Cuz… I cannot be the only one who tends waste hours, day, weeks or months on a simple task.

Well. That’s where I am right now. Not as far along as I had hoped, but not discouraged because it’s still a better plan than the alternative.

I’ll be back next week, and I want to talk to you about putting all your eggs in one online basket.

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If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life. ~ Abraham H Maslow

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